2019 is underway. A new year always seems to bring about people wanting a clean slate, a new beginning.

I actually tend toward seeing two ‘beginnings’ in a year -- January 1st and July 1st. A year seems like a long stretch, six months, not so long. This year, I’m actually planning on reviewing my progress every ninety days. We’ll see how that works out.

The Steemit Ramble Changes Name

As the last year drew to a close, I was spending some time thinking about what I wanted to see in the coming year. As always I was also paying attention to developments here on the Steem platform. I was particularly paying attention to the way the ecosystem has changed in the two+ years I’ve been on here.

When I opened the Steemit Ramble discord, steemit.com was pretty much the only interface to the blockchain. Some others started popping up after but didn’t really gain traction. Now, several interfaces are up and running, others are underway to join them and the number of apps and dapps bringing access to Steem is growing leaps and bounds.

It was becoming obvious to me that I needed to rethink using “Steemit” in the name. Then at the last Witness Chat where a lot of the discussion centered around the ecosystem and the need to move away from reliance on Steemit Inc, @reggaemuffin asked me the obvious question, “Why do you have Steemit in the name of the discord?”

Clearly it was time for me to stop thinking about changing the name and actually do it. I considered The Steem Ramble and Rambling Radio before settling on “The Ramble”. A lot of people already call it that anyways.

The new name is: The Ramble

Dropping Steemit From Our Conversation

Listening to the discussions on not only the Witness Chat, but also @pennsif’s State of Steem forums and in various posts it’s becoming obvious we need to shift our thinking away from saying we’re on Steemit to saying we’re on Steem.

We may know we are talking about Steem and just using the interface name BUT it gets confusing for people and organizations not on the platform. One of the main drawbacks to us not collectively being clear we’re on Steem is outsiders think Steemit.com is the platform when it’s really just the ugly front door to a rich ecosystem.

I was chatting with a lady just this morning about Steem. She and her husband own a software company and when I mentioned Steem she was interested. Did I send her to Steemit.com? Not in this life.

I gave her Steem.com to have a look at and told her that it was the blockchain development firm and then suggested she have a look at https://steemapps.com/ for a bit of an idea of what is available on the platform.

Are You Paying Attention?

I see and hear a lot of folks continuing to talk about “being on Steemit”. Word of mouth is what is going to really change the outside perceptions of this platform. Let’s start with at least calling it by name.